Flagged Down: Analyzing 2024 NFL Penalty Trends
by Nick Webster
The 2024 NFL season has seen its share of yellow flags, and a closer look at the data reveals some intriguing insights, particularly concerning the league's most penalized players. While overall penalty trends vary as the league adds new “points of emphasis”, the individual players consistently drawing laundry from officials have consistently fallen into two key position groups: offensive linemen and defensive backs.
The top of the penalties committed list is overwhelmingly dominated by offensive tackles. Laremy Tunsil of the Houston Texans leads the league with 19 penalties, closely followed by Tyler Guyton (Dallas Cowboys) with 18, and Jawaan Taylor (Kansas City Chiefs) with 17. This prevalence indicates that infractions like holding, false starts, and illegal use of hands remain persistent challenges for players tasked with protecting the quarterback and creating running lanes.
A deeper dive into the numbers for offensive linemen shows another issue: these players are frequently involved in plays that either stall a drive or result in negated yardage. While the "Null Yds" (nullified yards due to penalty) column highlights the often-costly nature of these fouls, the "Stalled Dr" (stalled drive) metric underscores their direct impact on offensive momentum.
For example, Laremy Tunsil's 19 penalties resulted in 120 nullified yards and stalled 11 drives, indicating the significant negative ripple effect of his flags. Maybe those who say Tunsil was moved to Washington only due to ‘personality issues’ are wrong, or perhaps it’s even those same personality issue and attention to detail that drive this level of penalties for Tunsil whose 19 flags were made up of 12 false starts and 3 illegal formations. When Bill Belichick himself speak of controlling the controllable its precisely things like dead ball penalties he’s addressing.
Beyond the trenches, defensive backs also feature prominently among the most penalized. Players like Joey Porter Jr. (Pittsburgh Steelers), Patrick Surtain II (Denver Broncos), Terrion Arnold (Detroit Lions), D.J. Reed (New York Jets), Marlon Humphrey (Baltimore Ravens), and Nate Wiggins (Baltimore Ravens) all land in the top 20. For defensive backs, penalties like defensive holding, illegal contact, and pass interference are typically the culprits. The data indicates that these penalties often result in first downs for the opposing team ("1D"), directly extending drives and giving offenses new life. Terrion Arnold, for instance, has amassed 167 penalty yards, contributing to 10 first downs in what was a challenging Rookie season for the Lion Cornerback.
Porter Jr. is renowned for being ‘handsy’, a reputation he’s had since his undergrad days as a Nittany Lion. But the season really got away from him in Week 13 at Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium when Joey was flagged 6-times, a single-game high in the league in 2024. And while 2 were declined, the penalties almost single handedly kept the Bengals in the game.
Surtain II was also quite highly flagged in 2024, but this didn’t keep him from taking home the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award. But it is one of the reasons we were slightly less high on Surtain than the media – his All-Pro running mate Derek Stingley Jr. was flagged just twice last season, for example.
The high number of penalties for these two position groups isn't entirely surprising. Offensive linemen are constantly engaged in physical battles at the line of scrimmage, where minor infractions can quickly draw a flag. Similarly, defensive backs operate in a tight, high-stakes environment where any slight misstep in coverage can lead to illegal contact or pass interference calls, especially in an era that generally favors offensive production.
